The railroad industry has recognized the potential of substantial cost savings by eliminating the caboose. However, the removal of cabooses from the ends of the freight trains has generated a need for certain equipment which is capable of sensing and monitoring the brake line pressure and which is able to ascertain the presence of the last car. That is, cabooseless operation has been made more practical by using a telemetry unit that mounts on the last car of the freight train. In practice, the telemetry equipment includes the electronics, R.F. transmitter, pressure transducer, and a battery which are all housed in an appropriate protective casing. It has been found that the ideal location for the equipment casing is on the open coupler of the last car since the glad-hand of the coupling hose is readily available for measuring the brake line pressure. Thus, a mounting bracket is ideally clamped to the webs between the core or relief holes formed on the guard arm side of the last coupler. In addition to the telemetry equipment, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) requires a flashing marker light to be carried on the end of the train. It has been found advantageous to provide a separate protective casing for the marker light and its battery in order to preserve the useful life of the battery of the telemetry unit.
In order to provide the most effective warning signal, the light rays emanating from the flashing marker unit should be projected directly rearward of the train. Thus, the face of the lens of the flashing signal light should be positioned perpendicular to the length of the railway tracks. Most of the railroads in the United States and Canada utilize one of the two types of car couplers, namely, either a type E coupler or a type F coupler. The contours of the guard arm surface and location of the core holes of the type E and F couplers are different so that the orientation of the telemetry and marker units, when attached to the respective coupler, is different. Positioning of the elemetry unit is not critical so long as helper engines in mountainous regions and switcher engines in classification may be freely coupled to the last car without having to remove the monitoring equipment. On the other hand, the mounting of the marker light unit is critical since it is necessary to orient and aim the flashing signal light toward the rear of the train. Thus, the mounting bracket must be provided with a dual-position marker light accommodating arrangement since the marker light must always be pointed directly rearward. In order to keep the system highly reliable, the dual-position mounting arrangement should not incorporate any moving parts.